Proud of Our Young Buddhists
What a joy it was to see all young Buddhists in the February 2nd Sunday Service! They were the members of OCBC Scout 578 and sixty students in the senior grade from the Kyoto Girls High School (K.G.S.). Both parties looked so neat in their uniforms. The Hondo filled with a lot of power and energy of young Buddhists during the service, and we felt so happy to be able to see the positive future of the OCBC sangha community.
Ryan, the service chair, said, “The twelfth value of Scout Law is to be reverent toward God and faithful in your religious duties. Being reverent is different for people of different faith, and we all respect and learn from each other.” During my ten-years studying at the Kyoto Girls middle school, high school, and Kyoto Women’s University, I attended the morning service once a week. We also had a class of Buddhism to learn the life of Shakyamuni Buddha and Shinran Shonin’s teaching. All students gradually became accustomed to place both palms together, and naturally recite Namo Amida Butsu. In the process of training, we learned how to bow to the reverence, appreciate what we receive, and help others with compassionate mind. It is important to live with the mind of reverence, which helps develop one’s good personality.
This year, OCBC Dharm School has 106 students (Pref K to 12-grade), taken care of by 21 teachers and 6 teacher’s assistants. Dharma School volunteer teachers and TAs prepare every Sunday class and provide children with the Buddhist education. There are also many active members of Sangha Teens, Jr YBA, and YABA Group. OCBC also has the Girl Scouts who always help our festivals and events. Those young Buddhists are smart and kind with the mind of reverence. They are our future. We are proud of those young Buddhists and their activities and tremendous help.
Musical Offering by Kyoto Girls:
That was such a beautiful and serene voice. First, they sang the Shinshū-shūka (Song of Jodoshinshu). When I was a student there, we always sang that gatha at the beginning of morning service. The English translation goes. [BCA translation edited by author]
I express deep reverence to the Dharma.
To what shall I liken my happiness!
By listening earnestly, I receive the path embraced by Great Compassion.
I have been liberated from the eternal darkness.
To what can I compare my happiness!
Reciting the Nembutsu, I will exert myself deli gently in my everyday life.
Without discrimination, I will share with everyone the Amida’s previous gift and the journey together to the Pure Land.
Non-discriminative and non-conditional spiritual liberation is equally given to everyone regardless of age, gender, ethnical and cultural background.
Buddhist Population in North America:
Pew Research Center [https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2015/04/02/buddhists/] shares interesting research results. Buddhists are expected to remain very heavily concentrated in the Asia-Pacific region, where 99% of Buddhists lived in 2010 and a similarly high proportion (98%) are projected to reside in 2050. The share of the world’s Buddhist population living in North America is expected to grow from about 0.8% in 2010 to 1.2% in 2050. Europe and the Middle East-North Africa region also are expected to see slight increases in their shares of the global Buddhist population.
It is exciting to read that in North America, the Buddhist population is projected to grow by more than 2 million, from 3.9 million in 2010 (or 1.1 % of North America’s population) to nearly 6.1 million in 2050 (1.4% of North America’s population).
I hope we will carry on the torch of Dharma to next generations and keep OCBC Sangha strongly connected, making it everyone’s spiritual home.
How rare and wonderous it is to encounter the Buddha-Dharma:
The term “encounter” means “it happens to be, not expected nor planned.” We don’t plan to meet the Buddha-Dharma, rather we happen to touch the Buddha-Dharma or glance the ultimate reality through many karmic conditions, beyond human calculations. Buddha-Dharma permeates everywhere, constantly making us to awake to the true reality.
Welcoming the Kyoto Girls at OCBC is also a rare and wonderous karmic condition. We as Shin Buddhists are all connected with Amida’s deep wishes beyond time and space. Lastly, Kyoto Girls presented the thousand cranes to the LA wildfire victims, expressing sympathy and good wishes. OCBC will soon deliver them to the Pasadena Buddhist temple.
Namo Amida Butsu
